A calf sent from Boston allows generations to live in N.E.
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Ocean travel has always defined Cape Verde's relationship with New England. The first documented Cape Verdeans to come here were whaling crewmen, as early as the 1740s. And as the whaling industry faded, some whaling vessels became packet ships, transporting Cape Verdean immigrants to the United States and, on the return voyage, goods sent by families back to those left behind.
The history of that back-and-forth rhythm is traced eloquently in the meticulous displays of the Cape Verdean Museum in East Providence, which was founded by donations of $1,000 each from 50 families and opened in 2005.
Yvonne Smart, a museum cofounder who is a third-generation Cape Verdean, glanced at photos of ships and dockworkers and recalled how her aunt bought a calf in Boston and sent it on a packet ship to her nephew, on the island of Brava. He collected it, fattened it up, and then took it to the main island of Praia, where he sold it. "And that's the money he used to pay for his passage to America. And now his whole family is here."
Smart, 72, said she supports a school on Brava, where her grandfather was from, and has traveled to the islands five times.
The packet ships plied this passenger trade until the 1960s.
The last such vessel, the Ernestina, was presented to the United States by Cape Verde in 1982 and is docked in New Bedford.
Seagoing transport is still very much alive for cargo: The Atlantic Shipping Co. in Fall River was formed in 1995 by Cape Verdean immigrants "to respond to an ever-increasing need for a regular and reliable maritime link between the United States and Cape Verde."
Museum cofounder Virginia Neves Gonsalves, 69, who came to the United States when she was 9 years old, has been back 12 times. She said that when Atlantic Shipping announces a sailing date to the islands, people still gather goods to send to relatives and community groups collect school materials, wheelchairs, and other items to donate to those in need.
